Fedora Linux

Recently (on Valentine's Day actually =P) I installed Fedora 10 onto my laptop.
It's now a dual boot between Windows Vista and Fedora Linux! How exciting!

It's true that linux is a little unfriendly, especially in the installing stuff area. BUT once it's working, it's basically as good as Windows, probably better on a more technical level. I just finished a presentation for tomorrow using OpenOffice which is included in the Fedora 10 distro. I can talk to my friends with Pidgin, the included instant messaging client. And, it comes with a killer desktop background that I probably won't change for a while.

The only thing linux really cannot do is play most commercial games. Technically you could do it through a virtual PC, but you'd still need the Windows OS for that. Maybe someone brilliant will find a away around it, just like everything else. =)

Update: There is a way around it. It's called Wine and it works pretty good with the popular games and applications. To name a few, World or Warcraft, Guild Wars, Half Life 2, MS Office, more here. Wine is not an emulator (that's actually what Wine stands for) so there's no sacrifice of speed like on a virtual pc. Yay Linux!

Chain Mail

Today I decided I wanted to make authentic chain mail armour. Why? Because it's awesome, that's why. It's something I'm adding to my list of stuff I want to do over Xmas break. Even though my DnD character isn't a melee class I think I was partially inspired by all of the combined geek auras in the room.


ThinkGeek.com (one of my favorite sites) also sells chain mail shirts, but I think it would exponentially more awesome to make one.

Waloon Hamlet

Today we started playing DnD. Our party is bunch of misfits from a city called Triton. We were sent to a small hamlet called Waloon so investigate mysterious activities around it's mausoleum. After meeting some of te townsfolk and buying supplies, we entered the crypt. It's infested with graverobbing goblins. We slayed a few and got out by the skin of our teeth, each earning 525 experience points.

I've got to say, Dungeons and Dragons deserves more credit than people give it. We were sort of playing impromptu also, without any manuals. All we had were penicls, paper, dice, and a lot of imagination. Awesome.

Half-Elf Wizard

Recently, I realized that there was a large area of geekhood that I've never explored. That's right, Dungeons and Dragons. Perhaps one of the dorkiest games ever created. Stereotypically dorky that is. I've played fantasy type games before, but never a hardcore pencil and paper, dice rolling rpg. It turns out a few people in my dorm, whom you would never suspect, used to play it quite a bit. We all made character sheets and will hopefully get a game started tomorrow. This is going to be ridiculously awesome.

My first DnD character (I'll just put the basics)

Name: Daynor Silverbeard
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Wizard
Alignment: Neutral Good
Sex: Male
Lvl: 1
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 125 lbs
Age: 25

Stats
Strength: 6 - 2
Dexterity: 14 + 2
Wisdom: 12 + 1
Intelligence: 16 + 3
Charisma: 14 + 2
Constitution: 12 + 1

Chem Lab Practical

I just completed my lab practical for principles of chemistry. Not trying to brag or anything, but it was really easy. I could see how it would be difficult for people who aren't comfortable with doing laboratory stuff, or for people who aren't as big a dork as I am. =)

Here's what they make you do:

1. Gravitational filtration, i.e. pour something into a funnel with a piece of filter paper in it.
2. Vacuum filtration, same thing only with a Buchner funnel and a water faucet set up.
3. Light a Bunsen burner, adjust it to a luminous/"cold" and a non-luminous/hot flame
4. Read a barometer, buret, graduated cylinder, and thermometer.
5. Weigh a flask, put 10mL of a liquid into the flask with a volumetric pipet, weight the flask + liquid
6. Calculate the density of liquid from the measurements.
   

I'm guessing upper level chem labs will involve more difficult processes. It's still a relief to know that I'm done with it though.